Fanfic: Legendary part 1
Title: Legendary
Rating: T
Summery: They never knew what was going to happen with Red John, they never knew what was going through his mind, they never knew anything about him. Sometimes, things change.
Authors Note: Written for the Mentalist Big Bang over at mentalist_bb. This is a big bang. Approximate word count 12300. I'm cutting it down to the wire, so there might be some errors, sorry about that. Thanks to twisted_slinky for the art which can be found here
Legendary
They called him legendary because he was the one that baffled them all. And with a sweep of his fingers and a slash of his knife he brought fear and anger to everyone he meet…or didn’t meet. He was a shadow always watching, a nightmare that never quite went away when you were awake. You saw him out of the corner of your eye, even though you didn’t know who he was. And if you had the good fortune to meet him then you would only need to meet him once to know that the tales they told were true.
I often watch people through the windows of their homes. I have a dog, not many people know that about me. Just a small one, a dog that people look at and think ‘oh how cute’ before walking on by. The dog is really the only companion I can trust. Dogs don’t run to the cops when they get scared, dogs don’t tell secrets. I take him out for walks every night, a different neighborhood each tome if I can manage, and look in living room windows. My dog likes to smell things, it’s something I’ve encouraged in him. The longer it takes for him to do his business, the longer I get to look around.
I see families at dinner, mothers and fathers and children, all sitting down to eat. I see the bachelors watching TV and eating frozen food. And I see the women. Married, single, mothers, sisters. They are all there on display for me.
No, I’m not some sort of common Peeping Tom; anyone could peek in bedroom windows and catch someone undressing. It takes a skill to observe them in full view without their knowledge. This is my skill. This is what I am best at.
Today it’s Sacramento, a middle of the road suburb, nothing fancy, nothing too over stated. But this is special. Here, in this mass of track houses and condos is a woman who thinks she can face off against me and win. And that will not do.
I danced along to the music streaming from my iPod. I had wondered if I’d use the dock enough when I bought it, but was glad that I’d gotten it now. There was just something about dancing barefoot in the kitchen while cooking. Something that my mother and I used to do and that brought back bitter sweet memories and usually made me smile.
I stirred the pot on the stove and smiled at the smell. A new recipe that I found for chicken soup. I loved chicken soup, especially in the fall and winter. The pot of soup I was making would give me not only dinner tonight, but also lunch for tomorrow and enough in the freezer that I would be able to have it for a meal at least four more times, and that would be big bowlfuls.
I pulled the spoon I had been stirring with gently out of the soup pot and took a sip of the flavorful broth. Though it was hot it was like liquid gold in my mouth. It was amazing. I would definitely be making this soup again. I turned off the heat and pulled a bowl from my cupboard. I picked these heavy stoneware bowls out when I first moved to Sacramento. I’d loved them so much I kept them and moved them from one apartment to another. They were deep, perfect for soup or ice cream after a long day in the field. The dark color of the glaze always reminded me of my grandparent’s basement walls, the dark wood paneling and the cherry carpet. Warm and inviting in the way that only a grandparent’s house could be.
I ladled the soup into the bowl and went to sit at the small table I had set up in the corner. It was a recent acquisition to my apartment. I’d decided that I needed something more than a coffee table when I was home at night. I wanted to be able to sit at a table like a civilized person. It would have been nice had I family to share it with, but Tommy hadn’t been around lately, so I hadn’t seen him or Annie in a while. I missed them both. I missed all my family. Most of them were still back east. I thought on occasion about moving back there, but I’m far too attached to my life here, to my job, my team.
I sighed at took a bight of my soup. It was good, a bit warm still, but good. I looked out the window in front of my table as I waited for the soup to cool slightly. There was a woman out jogging, her shoes and jacket reflecting the little bits of light shining from the windows she was passing. I wondered at the wisdom of her jogging alone at this time of night. Sure, this was a relatively safe neighborhood, but it still was better to be cautious.
I took another spoon full and looked again. There was a man walking his dog. They were slowly walking along. The dog seemed interested in every flower and bush and blade of grass that they passed. The man didn’t seem rushed at all. I looked at him a bit longer, he was middle aged, I think, a baseball cap hid most of his features. I didn’t recognize him and wondered if I had a new neighbor or if he simply lived a few streets away.
I looked down at my soup and brought another bite to my mouth. When I looked out the window again the man was gone.
part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, part 6 here, part 7 here, part 8 here, part 9 here